


The Soldier

by AbVeAnTdAeRr



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Crime, Implied/Referenced Suicide, fire nation soldier, graphic description of violence, i didn't know i could write my own tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29949951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbVeAnTdAeRr/pseuds/AbVeAnTdAeRr
Summary: Collection of Drabbles. "Soldiers are people. Beneath the iron of their armor and the façade of their indifference, there is character. There is trauma."





	1. Chapter 1

The sight was wicked. And he could already see their eyes paling in color.

_The soldier watched._

They ordered them into a cluster. Shoving or throwing.

The soldier looked at them. He stared into their faces, peering past their eyes.

They told him everything and nothing at all.

He heard his commander call from behind, "Is that all?"

The lieutenant responded, but the soldier's ears were blurred. He felt like he should do something.

_The soldier watched._

The commander stepped forward. "Kill them all."

There were sharp gasps. Pained cries. The soldier wondered if they had already died.

"But - the children."

There was a nodding of heads, quiet acquiescence, and a rapid succession of flames that followed.

He didn't want to hear them but he did. Maybe he deserved it.

It wasn't until after, when the screaming had stopped and the bodies had stilled, that the soldier found the nearest wall he could and - bent over - vomited on the ground below.


	2. Chapter 2

The soldier lay against the dirt of the trench, curled into a ball.

His company was being bombarded. He had never felt this helpless.

He made to run towards a ditch - a crater from a previous explosion.

_Artillery fire never mark the same spot twice._

But, just as his feet steadied the ground - just as his hands palmed the soil - a boulder smashed into the dip of the trench. Its impact sent loose dirt into the air, stray debris finding the white of his skin.

He had stared death in the face at that precise moment. It had looked upon him with mad eyes and a flashing smile.

The soldier wasn't sure whether it was the force of the rock or the self-realization of his own danger, but his heart dropped all the same.

He had never felt this helpless.


End file.
